This Tuesday, Oakland’s own shaggy bearded southerner, Josh Reddick, took home a fancy piece of hardware in MLB’s Gold Glove awards, crowned as the AL RF recipient. The rail thin outfielder dazzled the Coliseum crowds this season with marvelous defensive plays, preventing runs and winning games with his glove constantly (Important after tanking offensively post ASB). He even gained some infamy with a catch that required scaling Toronto’s RF chain link fence and forever earned the designation as “Piederman” in the Easy Bay. However, what shouldn’t be shocking is Reddick being honored as the best right fielder in the AL (Which he was) especially given his competition of Shin-Soo Choo (Having zero business of being up for a defensive award) and Jeff Francoeur (Which the fact of him even being up for a postseason honor is side numbingly hilarious on its own), but rather that an Athletic won a prize when the voting was done by national figures. I can assure that if Nick Swisher was a nominee instead of Choo (CLE) or Frenchie (KC), the Yankee would’ve won. The awards are predicated not only on offensive numbers, illogically enough, but equally the market of which team the player represented. All postseason honors and All-Star voting essentially is a sham. To give an example, Reddick, back when he was in his offensive stride before the ASB and was as defensively dominant as he has been, went up for All-Star voting the OF was one of the consensus top 20 best positional players in 2012. Where did he wind up finishing? 18th. In the American League. For outfielders… While yes, writers are more qualified than the general public, the GGs have to be taken with a pinch of salt. Luckily, they chose the correct man here, so congrats to Reddick for the recognition. Well-deserved after the All-Star snub.
The green and gold were also busy with roster adjustments over the past few days, beginning with exercising the option of Grant Balfour. The October workhorse will return for a third consecutive season as Oakland opted to spend 4.5 Million on their most reliable bullpen piece during 2012. The Aussie constructed a resume that rivaled his best overall campaign in 2008 and guided the Athletics with steady performances to close out ballgames throughout the second half of the schedule.
More unexpected, however, was the declining of Stephen Drew’s 10 Million dollar option which coincided with Balfour’s payment. Oakland acquired the Arizona SS in an August swap for Sean Jamieson and provided the A’s a veteran presence in the left of the infield for the playoff push. Drew played spotty defense at times, finishing with a -4.4 UZR during his career in the Coliseum, but proved to be a cheap and consistent performer overall. In 172 PAs, Drew put together a .250/.326/.382 slash along with a .306 BABIP, 10.5% BB%, .310 wOBA, and a 97 wRC+ throughout 39 contests. He carried the white spikes through key series in Yankee Stadium and in the Ballpark of Arlington with a slightly above average power bat that helped him gain fans in the east bay. However, despite Oakland publicly announcing their intention to sign the new free agent, the chances seem bleak in regards to seeing him return as an Athletic.
Drew is going to be undoubtedly the most highly prized free agent infielder this offseason. That is how weak the market is. Oakland obviously doesn’t want to pay him double digit figures per season in a contract or else they would’ve picked up his option. With large market organizations such as New York, Boston and Detroit in need of shortstop help and willing to splurge, A’s fans can practically say bon voyage to Stevie. Though Drew’s name could’ve been sharpied in to the 2013 opening day roster after Pennington was dealt, there is now a large and significant position in flux for the Athletics… AGAIN. And now comes the time where potential candidates, from within the organization and outside of it, can be discussed:
First would be the obvious, the former first round selection and Futures Game MVP, Grant Green. Green has bounced around the minor leagues and has made residence in Sacramento and Midland for the previous two seasons and is a self-described “field rat”. In short, meaning essentially that he lives and breathes baseball. However, the utility extraordinaire has struggled defensively and doesn’t project to dominate MLB pitching. The youngster and former 13th overall selection has never had a single season where his BB% has gone above 6.8% and could struggle to get on-base especially with a favorable BABIP assisting him throughout the minors. Regardless, Green should still find himself on the 40 man roster come spring to avoid the Rule 5 draft and promises to at the least receive some consideration in Phoenix.
Adam Rosales, another option in the shortstop race and resident utility man, would basically be as offensively productive as Green with slightly superior defense. And while no one dislikes a sprinting Rosales bounding around the basepaths after a homer, he doesn’t seem like a fitting everyday replacement to succeed Drew with a projection is more underwhelming than the newly assigned FA. Eric Sogard, the spectacled middle infielder, arises as another option with solid defensive intangibles and a dominant minor league resume. But, Sogard has struggled in the majors at the plate and continues not only to cause damage to himself with shaky plate discipline, but cannot seem to become friends with the luck dragons either. But, who’s to say Sogard couldn’t find his stride similarly to a Carter, Moss or Donaldson?... Well, those dramatic transitions are pretty rare to come by consistently and there’s no guarantee Sogard will or will ever join them. Greg Sparks does have an impressive track record though, so we’ll just until February arrives and the “spectacled avenger” can be reevaluated. (And NO, JEMILE IS NOT AN OPTION AT SHORTSTOP. GET OFF YOUR PIPE)
The Athletics also have a surplus of starting pitching depth and projectable minor leaguers, which opens the possibility to trade. Some candidates and potential targets include Yunel Escobar, Elvis Andrus, Marco Scutaro and Asdrubal Cabrera. All are earning under 7 million next season and would provide a boost even greater than Drew did. There are some few free agent options as well such as Alex Gonzalez and, should Detroit acquire Drew, Jhonny Peralta. But, only time will tell if any of these players are picked by Beane or if rather they experiment with Green, Sogard and Rosales (NOT WEEKS). So, try to stay patient with this as the situations develop.
Also, Oakland quietly inked Quad A reliever, Mike Ekstrom, to a minor league contract. Ekstrom, after horrendous major stint in San Diego, turned the corner in Colorado this season in 15 2/3 IP. He allowed a single HR and maintained an impressive 2.8% BB% despite his .333 BABIP, which made his 1.15 BB/9 seem atrocious. Finishing with a 3.16 FIP during his brief stint at mile high and an even more impressive 2.31 FIP throughout 43 appearances in AAA, Ekstrom seems to be an intelligent pick-up by Beane as the righty should leap over Miller and Simmons on the depth chart.
Also new for the green and gold was their releasing of Joey Devine and Dallas Braden to free agency. Devine, an injury ridded reliever who had made appearances for Oakland between 2008 and 2011 (For a combined 2.0 fWAR in 68 2/3 IP), underwent yet another TJ surgery this season and left Oakland on a gloomy note. After a sensational 2008 in which he torched the competition en route to a historical rookie campaign, Devine had to undergo his first TJS (See Link)
http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/index.php/remembering-joey-devines-2008-brilliance/
However, he never would recuperate from the surgery and set-backs would derail the outstanding beginning that he had. Devine leaves a somber reminder to Oakland as to how injuries can brutally strip one’s aspirations and squander talents.
Coinciding with this was the departure of Dallas Braden. Braden became a household name and an inspirational story after his perfect game against Tampa Bay on Mother’s Day 2010. Braden had been a dependable name for Oakland out of their rotation as the soft tossing lefty amassed a 7.7 fWAR through 491 1/3 IP for the Athletics between 94 appearances. But, things turned sour for Braden in a 2011 start versus Detroit in which he not only had to leave the game, but the season as he aggravated his shoulder and would be sidelined until 2012. Entering this season, Braden was marked for a Mid-April return, which was then moved back to May, then June, then July, then 2013… Braden experienced numerous setbacks in his recovery and couldn’t make an impact on the field during Oakland’s remarkable 2012. Frustrations escalated for Braden in his adopted city of Stockton too, as he made news by criticizing the police force publicly by gaining entry into a rally while carrying a baseball bat and announced his intentions to leave the now bankrupt community after robberies involving his grandmother. Now, the longest tenured Athletic to date has entered free agency and seems to be looking for another home now that Oakland’s rotation has filled up.
The flipside from these goodbyes is that Oakland now has two more 40 man spots available (36 filled out of 40). With the Rule 5 draft approaching, expect Green and Ynoa to nab the positions vacated by Devine and Braden.
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